One of the main challenges right at the beginning of starting a business/self employment is simply not knowing what working for yourself is actually like. People have a certain image in their head when they think of self employment..so here are some things you might not be expecting.

Most people who are thinking about working for themselves will imagine long hours spent at the desk/other sometimes burning the midnight oil in order to get stuff done. They expect a never-ending flurry of emails and calls and demands.

Although this is true to a point (in fact I guarantee this will happen) what many people don’t expect is the silence that often accompanies working for yourself. The many hours you’ll have where you simply don’t have anything to do.

This can be for a number of reasons; perhaps you’re waiting for clients to come back to you, or perhaps you worked hard over the weekend and now can take a break, during the early days you simply won’t have enough work to fill the hours.

Most people don’t anticipate this.

Some people on the outside see self employment as a way to get up when they want, work the hours that suit them and while this is true to a degree, largely your schedule is dictated by other people and what work you have on.

One of the key skills that you will have to learn working for yourself is how to best manage yourself and your time.

I would recommend that having a routine is definitely a good thing but the emphasis should be keeping yourself relaxed and ready so that when you do need to go into that higher gear you can. I think sometimes life when you’re self employed feels like slow motion. Suddenly filling 8 hours in a day without someone telling you what to do can feel like a daunting prospect!

Do whatever is going to mean that you’ll get the best out of you, because undoubtedly (and certainly the busier you get) there will be some weeks where there aren’t enough hours in the day.